The Academy has today published a new report which summarises social science equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data as part of our collaborative EDI Project in partnership with our member learned societies and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
The social sciences make up one of the largest sectors within UK Higher Education (HE), with a total of 1,232,220 enrolled students and a total of 64,755 academic staff in the sector in 2021/2022. Produced at the request of the Academy’s member social science societies, the new report draws on 2021/22 Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data to present a top-level summary of EDI data for the social sciences, for both academic and teaching staff and for student populations in UK higher education.
It presents an overview of selected protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, and includes some socio-economic indicators, which allows for comparisons between the social sciences sector and the UK’s total academic staff and student populations to be made, in addition to comparisons between disciplines within the social sciences sector.
By providing a snapshot in time of current data on EDI for staff and student populations within the social sciences in UK higher education, the report and its data will support further work in this area by the Academy and its member learned societies. Although the data presented and analysed are only a selection of what is available, the report paves the way for the Academy’s member social science societies to conduct further discipline-level analyses to support their EDI activities.
The Academy will be offering further support to our member social science societies to ensure they are best placed to conduct deeper dives into the data should they wish. Many societies also have qualitative data that complements and enriches the quantitative data.
The EDI Project aims to encourage, share and facilitate greater awareness of, and actions to support, EDI across social science learned societies in the wider community.
For more information about the collaborative EDI Project, explore our EDI Hub.